Jio Gains 59 Lakh New Users In September; Airtel, Vodafone & Others Struggling!

The sudden emergence of Reliance Jio in Indian telecom industry has now propelled them to become India’s 4th largest telecom player, as they added a massive 59 lakh new users in September alone.

This incredible growth has overshadowed India’s largest telecom company: Airtel’s growth in the same period, as they managed to add just 10 lakh new users.

These data have emerged from TRAI’s recent report on overall telecom users in India, and performance of different telecom companies in September.

However, the most interesting thing to note here is that, overall, telecom base in India shrunk by 29 lakh users.

What is causing this dip in mobile users in India? Who exactly is responsible?

Changing Dynamics of Indian Telecom: The September Report

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI has just released their report highlighting financial report of leading telecom players in India, and some very interesting analysis has been done.

While overall, Indian telecom now has 29 lakh less users, Jio emerged as the champion, with 59 lakh new users in the same period.

This means that users of erstwhile biggies such as Vodafone, Idea and RCom are now ditching their traditional operators, and opting for Jio’s supercheap, superfast plans with even more vigour.

Only Airtel, which is still India’s #1 telco, managed to salvage some pride, as they were able to add 10 lakh new users in the month of September.

Vodafone, which is India’s 2nd largest telco as per numbers, lost 70 lakh users from their database; Idea lost 90 lakh and Aircel lost 30 lakh users.

Jio’s tsunami is not even sparing state-carriers BSNL and MTNL, as they too displayed rather poor performance. While BSNL added mere 5 lakh new users, MTNL actually lost 5000 subscribers in the same period.

Here is the ranking and numbers of India’s telecom players, based on latest TRAI report:

1. Airtel with 28.2 crore users, capturing 22.84% market share
2. Vodafone with 20.7 crore users, capturing 7.53% market share
3. Idea with 19 crore users, capturing 16.07% market share
4. Jio with 13.8 crore users, capturing 11.72% market share

Overall, private players have grabbed 90.75% market share, while public players (BSNL and MTNL) has now only 9.25% share.

And, total wireless users, including GSM, CDMA and LTE declined by 0.29% in September, as there are now total of 118.3 crore users at the end of September, compared to 118.5 crore users in August.

You can find the complete report here.

TRAI Wants More Consolidation In Telecom Space

Meanwhile, as we can see from the latest TRAI report, there the top 3 companies are garnering maximum market share. A model of emerging oligopoly can be seen, which can be bad for the overall sector and consumers,

Understanding this, TRAI has recommended to Department of Telecom (DoT) that cap on spectrum allocation should be increased from 25% to 35%, so that there is more consolidation in the telecom space, and the spectrum is distributed evenly among all companies.

If the current spectrum cap is allowed, then in the next 12 months, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea combined will own 95% share of all spectrum in the country, leaving no space for other players. State carriers will be the one with the remaining spectrum, and the market will suffer.

If DoT approved TRAI’s recommendations, then we can see even more consolidation in the telecom space, and emergence of newer companies, with niche, targeted audience.

We will keep you updated..